UC Davis partnership with Pioneer High benefits budding scientists

Pioneer High School biology students have an opportunity to gain practical experience in a UC Davis laboratory through an internship program.

The partnership started three years ago when Emily Tombleson, a biology instructor at Pioneer, was contacted by professors Siobhan Brady and Neelima Sinha of the UC Davis Plant Biology department. Both have research laboratories, the Brady lab and Sinha lab, at UCD that investigate genetics as they relate to plants.

As part of a National Science Foundation grant that was originally designed for undergraduate outreach, Brady and Sinha wanted to expand this outreach to local high school students. After talking with Tombleson, they developed a program that would allow students to gain practical laboratory experience in molecular biology.

According to Tombleson, Pioneer student Imani Bunn, who interned during the 2011-2012 school year, is now working in a plant genetics lab at Harvard University. Another student, Preetveer Kaur interned the following year, and is now working as a researcher at the Sinha lab as a UCD undergraduate. These are only a handful of the success stories that have come out of the partnership.

The program has also been beneficial to the graduate and post doctoral students who work in Brady's lab.

"It has very much stimulated their interest in teaching," Brady said. "They have also learned how to design lab modules and how to communicate effectively with students at different levels. It is really going to help them in their future careers."

Since its inception in 2011, the partnership between Pioneer and UCD has grown. Students involved commit up to three hours per week in the lab and learn valuable techniques in the field of biotechnology as it relates to plants. They are also involved in helping prepare materials and lessons to come back and teach to their classmates.

"This was valuable to me because I could count on these student interns to act as mini-teachers to help their lab group peers," Tombleson said.

"Over the years, the partnership has enabled students in my AP biology class to enjoy guest speakers from UCD discuss their research in meaningful ways that relate to AP-required topics," she said. "The guests have brought in expensive equipment that we would otherwise not have access to, such as a thermocycler, and taught students to use it." A thermocycler is used in polymerase chain reaction, where students can replicate copies of DNA. At this time, the internship is only available to AP biology students at Pioneer.

"Students who wish to be involved in the internship are told about the opportunity and required commitments," Tombleson said. "Those who are interested in pursuing it are then asked to submit a letter of intent about how the experience would be of value to them."

The program has had more applicants then in previous years, and an additional lab has been added to accommodate those students. There are seven students actively working in three labs at UCD.

"Having high school students in the lab makes us feel more youthful," Brady said. "Their energy and enthusiasm is infectious."

The school district Board of Trustees recognized the internship program at a meeting on Feb. 13. Tombleson was joined by five of her students in accepting the "Spotlight on Excellence" honor.

"We are eager to continue the partnership in the coming years and continue to refine the experiences offered to the students," Tombleson said. "I hope that other schools and other teachers go into the community and increase internships," said Trustee Cirenio Rodriguez. "We need to do that much more in all aspects of our curriculum in our schools, I hope people will pay attention and triplicate and multiply internship programs in our district."